About

I have been fortunate to engage in a wide variety of work – as a political scientist and quantitative scholar teaching at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Virginia; as a data scientist engaged in applied work with the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service; as a researcher bridging applied and academic interests often with community partners; and as a consultant and leader creating UVA’s StatLab and envisioning and building out a Data Science Services team in the UVA Library.

I’m currently the Director of Research Data Services and the Social, Natural, and Engineering Sciences in the UVA Library, where I lead an amazing team of statistical and computational consultants, data curation and data discovery librarians, research software specialists, and subject librarians.

And I’ve been grateful to find many generous and creative partners along the way who’ve invited me to be part of collaborative work. Current partners include:

  • Community Policy, Analytics, and Strategy Lab (CommPAS), co-directing a community-oriented research initiative with Paul Martin in the Batten School of Public Policy and the UVA StatLab,
  • Public Interest Data Lab, leading a curricular lab in the Batten School of Public Policy designed to provide data science experience to students oriented towards justice,
  • The Global Policy Center’s Humanitarian Collaborative, working with David Leblang on on predictive analytics for humanitarian goals,
  • The Virginia Equity Center, partnering with Barbara Brown Wilson and the Democratization of Data Initiative to co-create a regional equity atlas with our community.

In the last five years, my interests have taken a sharp turn towards using data science to promote accountable governance, make visible racial and other social inequities, and impact public policy and movement building. More importantly, I hope I’m mentoring the amazing young people I get to work with at UVA to engage this work early in their careers.

Also, sometimes I play the mandolin, pretend I’m learning to play the banjo, and harbor a dream of joining a home-grown bluegrass band!

Community-Engaged Projects

Charlottesville Regional Equity Atlas

  • TheCharlottesville Regional Equity Atlasproject is a collaboration between the University of Virginia Library, the Equity Center, and the broader regional community to imagine and co-create a platform to combine, visualize, and make accessible data about local disparities.
  • Partially funded by an IMLS Community Catalyst grant

Cville Region COVID Equity and Recovery

  • In response to COVID, we began partnering with the UVA Global Policy Center to organize, visualize, and share data about COVID crisis response to inform equitable recovery. This is a rapidly evolving effort to provide easily accessible measures sought and shared by community organizations and members. We’re seeking to make accessible data to support all those working to improve lives, promote community resilience, create a more equitable processes, policies, and structures for our community.

Public Interest Data Lab

  • The Public Interest Data Lab is intended to provide data science experience to students in service of the public interest. We practice working collaboratively, openly, inclusively, and reproducibly.
  • Generating a series of studies in partnership with Charlottesville’s Department of Social Services to examine racial and other disparities in the local child welfare ecosystem.

Charlottesville Region’s NGO Sector

  • An interactive resource to better understand the size, scope, and emphasis of our local NGO sector.

CommPAS Lab

  • Additional CommPAS Lab projects.
  • We work in partnership with cities, nonprofits, and citizen groups to produce actionable research and resources.

Research Projects

Workshops and Instruction

Library Projects

CV/Resume

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